Intracranial electrophysiological and structural basis of BOLD functional connectivity in human brain white matter

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 14; no. 1; p. 3414
• Main Authors: Huang, Yali, Wei, Peng-Hu, Xu, Longzhou, Chen, Desheng, Yang, Yanfeng, Song, Wenkai, Yi, Yangyang, Jia, Xiaoli, Wu, Guowei, Fan, Qingchen, Cui, Zaixu, Zhao, Guoguang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 09.06.2023; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 59/36; 59/57; 631/1647/1453/1450; 631/1647/245/1627; 631/1647/245/2149; 631/378; 9/30; Biomarkers; Blood; Brain mapping; Computer networks; Correlation; Drug resistance; EEG; Electroencephalography; Epilepsy; Frequencies; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Humanities and Social Sciences; Magnetic resonance imaging; multidisciplinary; Neural networks; Neuroimaging; Neurological diseases; Oxygenation; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Substantia alba; Substantia grisea; Synchronism; Synchronization
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-39067-3

While functional MRI (fMRI) studies have mainly focused on gray matter, recent studies have consistently found that blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) signals can be reliably detected in white matter, and functional connectivity (FC) has been organized into distributed networks in white matter. Nevertheless, it remains unclear whether this white matter FC reflects underlying electrophysiological synchronization. To address this question, we employ intracranial stereotactic-electroencephalography (SEEG) and resting-state fMRI data from a group of 16 patients with drug-resistant epilepsy. We find that BOLD FC is correlated with SEEG FC in white matter, and this result is consistent across a wide range of frequency bands for each participant. By including diffusion spectrum imaging data, we also find that white matter FC from both SEEG and fMRI are correlated with white matter structural connectivity, suggesting that anatomical fiber tracts underlie the functional synchronization in white matter. These results provide evidence for the electrophysiological and structural basis of white matter BOLD FC, which could be a potential biomarker for psychiatric and neurological disorders. Whether connectivity in white matter detected by functional MRI relates to underlying electrophysiological synchronization is unclear. Here, the authors show that blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) functional connectivity and intracranial stereotactic-electroencephalography (SEEG) connectivity are correlated across a wide range of frequency bands.